Monitoring of soil moisture using a microwave based variational wetness index

Author

Lacava, T. ; Faruolo, M. ; Pergola, N. ; Temimi, M. ; Khanbilvardi, R. ; Coviello, I. ; Tramutoli, V. ; Wang, D.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Methodologies for Environ. Anal., Nat. Res. Council, Tito Scalo, Italy

fYear

2012

fDate

5-9 March 2012

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

Satellite data have been largely used to detect and monitor flooding events. In particular, data acquired by passive radiometers were recognized as the most adequate to this aim, thanks to their suitable trade-off between temporal and spatial resolution. In this work, nine years of data acquired by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) aboard Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua, have been investigated by means of the Robust Satellite Techniques (RST) approach, implementing a robust indicator of soil moisture variation, the Polarization Ratio Variation Index (PRVI). Such an index has been applied to analyze the flood which hit Pakistan during summer 2010. Preliminary results shown in this study demonstrated the potential of such an index in providing reliable information about the presence of extremely wet soils, especially when low frequency AMSR-E channels are used.

Keywords

floods; hydrological techniques; radiometry; remote sensing; rivers; soil; AD 2010; AMSR-E; EOS Aqua; Pakistan; advanced microwave scanning radiometer; flooding event; passive radiometer; polarization ratio variation index; robust satellite techniques approach; soil moisture; variational wetness index; Floods; Lead; Media; Moisture; Monitoring; Radiometry; Sensors; AMSR-E; Flood; Pakistan; RST;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing of the Environment (MicroRad), 2012 12th Specialist Meeting on

Conference_Location

Rome

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-1468-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MicroRad.2012.6185233

Filename

6185233